Toxic Workplace!

Although the subject of toxic personalities has been in the news for a few years now, this book is distinguished by the fact that it surpasses the individual dimension and underlines the responsibility of the company in managing this phenomenon. According to the authors, a toxic individual can do harm only because the rules and the culture of the organization where that person works allow him or her to do so. Logically, therefore, the solution must also be collective in nature. In any case, it is not merely a matter of dealing with the person as an individual case.
To set the stage, the authors deconstruct the characteristics of a toxic behavior and analyze the cost to the company: demoralized staff, lower performance, resistance to change, etc. They particularly emphasize the fact that the problem tends to get worse with time if no specific effort is made to resolve it.
The heart of the book consists in a panorama of strategies to manage a toxic individual, strategies that concern not only the individual per se (forcing the person to face the consequences of their behavior, suggesting suitable coaching, etc.) but also the team affected by the person (defining acceptable behavioral standards, applying these standards every day, using a coach to teach people to learn to work differently with the toxic individual, etc.). Finally, the company culture itself must often be revised to prevent such behavior from proliferating.
This is a book that encourages active management of problems which often slip through the cracks.